Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words … will get you taken away in handcuffs.

A 38-year-old mother in the United Kingdom was recently arrested and held behind bars for seven hours, according to a report from the U.K. Daily Mail. Her “crime?” She had the audacity to call a transgender woman a man.

Incredibly, that offense didn’t even happen in person. Officers came to Kate Scottow’s home and arrested her in front of her children after she got into an online debate on Twitter, the Daily Mail reported.

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It sounds like something from George Orwell’s “1984,” but it’s happening for real — and it could be coming to the United States soon if the far left gets its way.

“The 38-year-old, from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, had her photograph, DNA and fingerprints taken and remains under investigation,” the Daily Mail reported.

The article quoted from an account Scottow wrote for the online forum Mumsnet (registration required):

“I was arrested in my home by three officers, with my autistic 10-year-old daughter and breastfed 20-month-old son present,” Scottow wrote, according to the Daily Mail.

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“I was then detained for seven hours in a cell with no sanitary products (which I said I needed) before being interviewed then later released under investigation … I was arrested for harassment and malicious communications because I called someone out and misgendered them on Twitter,” she continued.

The bizarre and alarming arrest apparently stems from an online spat with Stephanie Hayden, a transgender activist. Hayden was born a man, a fact that can seemingly get anyone in Britain arrested for correctly pointing out.

A mother Kate Scottow, 38, is arrested in front of her children and locked in a cell for seven HOURS after calling a transgender woman, activist Stephanie Hayden a man by Hertfordshire Police.https://t.co/DtIdKfTFa8

Police in Hertfordshire confirmed that Scottow was arrested, the Daily Mail reported.

“We take all reports of malicious communication seriously,” a police statement said, according to the newspaper.

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However, that so-called “malicious communication” seems to essentially be something the West used to defend: Freedom of speech.

The woman who was kept in police custody for seven hours insisted that she held a “genuine and reasonable belief” that people “cannot practically speaking change sex.” That’s a view held by a vast number of people and, to the chagrin of leftists, actual science.

But the United Kingdom seems bent on enforcing increasingly strict limits on the personal views their citizens are allowed to hold. A judge has now ordered that Scottow be banned from “referencing (Stephanie Hayden) as a man” or posting about her “former male identity” in any way, the Daily Mail reported.

Think about that for a moment. No matter what anyone thinks about transgender lifestyles, it’s simply a fact that Hayden is biologically a man. Authorities in Britain appear to be threatening people with arrest for making factual statements. Reality has no place in the new, police-enforced land of make-believe.

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Can this kind of “speech enforcement” come to the United States?

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It was English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall who famously wrote (putting the words into the mouth of French philosopher Voltaire), “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Yet a century after that brilliant line about free speech, Britain appears to have stopped defending the right to speak one’s mind freely.

Now it is all about enforcing government-approved narratives, increasingly backed by officers flashing badges.

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America better pay attention, because if it can happen in once-Great Britain, it can happen in the United States — and sooner than anyone expects.

Benjamin Arie is an independent journalist and writer. He has personally covered everything ranging from local crime to the U.S. president as a reporter in Michigan, before focusing on national politics. Ben frequently travels to Latin America and has spent years living in Mexico.
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Benjamin Arie has been a political junkie since the hotly contested 2000 election. He attended Florida State University and informally majored in women’s studies, primarily the sorority on the other side of his dorm.
After giving rickshaw driving and nightclub management a go, Ben settled on journalism after realizing he could get paid to rant. He cut his teeth on car accidents and house fires as a small-town reporter in Michigan before becoming a full-time political writer.
Benjamin had a front row seat to the 2016 campaign circus while covering angry protesters and Donald Trump’s nomination at the GOP convention in Cleveland, which cemented his view that half of the country is insane. He has lived as an expat in Latin America, and enjoys piloting gliders and scuba diving when he can get away from the grind.